Despite steep tariffs, the Chinese carmaker leapfrogged Tesla in April, in what an analyst called a “watershed moment” for the continent’s auto market.

BYD outsold Tesla by an even wider margin when including the carmaker’s plug-in hybrid EVs, with total sales soaring 359% in April from a year earlier, market researcher Jato Dynamics said.

Despite the EU's imposition of tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, registrations of such cars increased 59% in April from a year earlier.